The Queue

My colleague told me that the queue for the SG50 commemorative notes at a particular bank was relatively short. It was lunch time so I decided I would take a short walk to Battery Road to join the queue. There were probably 50 customers in the queue ahead of me. As I was waiting there were two women who were telling an elderly man that this was the sixth time they were queueing for the notes since early this morning. The women were carrying their hoard from the earlier rounds of queueing at other banks. Quite a productive morning for them it would seem.

After about 20 minutes in the queue it came to my turn. When I got to the cash counter, I heard the customer next to me asking the cashier whether she could deposit the commemorative notes into her account. The cashier looked somewhat perturbed, perhaps wondering how she could respond to the question without offending the customer. There was an awkward silence and I could not help but turn to look in slight amusement.

Not quiet sure why that was the wrong question, the customer then asked whether she could exchange her commemorative notes with those from the bank. This time the cashier told the customer politely that the notes she had were similar to the ones that the branch was offering to everyone. For obvious reasons, I found myself still drawn to the conversation.

Then the customer asked whether she could exchange her commemorative notes for the folders that banks were giving away with the notes. She pointed at the stack of folders next to the counter. Staying very polite, the cashier explained that those folders did not contain any notes. Slightly embarrassed, the customer finally asked whether she could have those folders. The cashier clarified that the folders were for customers who exchange their standard-issue notes for the commemorative notes, and that each customer was limited to two folders.

Having exhausted her list of questions, the customer left the cash counter still holding on to the commemorative notes that she brought to the branch. Perhaps she could have saved herself some time had she listened in on the pointers that the two women in the queue were giving to the elderly man.